HONG KONG — The failure of the six-party talks to agree on a schedule for North Korea to declare and disable all of its nuclear programs shows that there are major obstacles ahead, although the first phase — providing for the shutdown of the ...

HONG KONG — The Vatican, through a pastoral letter from Pope Benedict XVI to the 12 million Catholics in China, has called for reconciliation between the so-called patriotic church, which operates independently from the Holy See, and the underground church, which recognizes the supremacy ...

HONG KONG — Focusing on climate change, the most recent Group of Eight meeting, chaired by Germany and attended by five of the world’s biggest developing countries, marked a significant step forward in a battle for nothing less than the survival of humanity on ...

HONG KONG — The dispute over the renaming of a memorial hall in Taiwan would be hilarious if it were not for the very serious political tensions that are pitting the two main political parties against each other. President Chen Shui-bian, to weaken Taiwan’s ...

HONG KONG — The recent verbal gymnastics of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe show why, more than 60 years after the end of World War II, Japan’s wartime behavior remains a sensitive issue around the region and why the country’s apologies are regarded as insincere. ...

HONG KONG — With the approach of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government is making all kinds of preparations to host the games and to welcome foreign visitors and athletes. It knows that the eyes of the world are increasingly turning to China. To ...

HONG KONG — North Korea’s nuclear test Oct. 9 may have created a crisis atmosphere in the world but, at the same time, it has greatly improved China’s relations with the United States as the two countries work closely together to put pressure on ...

HONG KONG — The new U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s visit to China provides hope that the increasingly bitter stalemate in economic relations between the two countries may be amenable to change. The problem is that protectionists in Washington may not be willing to ...

HONG KONG — The headlines tell it all. On the front page of the International Herald Tribune: “Activist in China sentenced to 4 years — decision seen as part of a sweeping move to punish dissent.” For the official Xinhua news agency report on ...

HONG KONG — Following the Chinese press, one sometimes gets totally depressed and feels that there is no hope for the country, with its myriad problems. At other times, the opposite is true. This week, it is a mix. On different fronts, one sees ...